A snapshot of the lost suburb of Eckersley

In the early 1800s, a small township developed within the boundaries of what is now the Holsworthy Field Firing Range on the eastern side of the Georges River. The Parish of Eckersley had been named in 1835 by the Surveyor General after Nathaniel Eckersley, who was a Quartermaster-general during the Peninsular War which was part of the Napoleonic Wars. There was, however, no European settlement there until it was opened for selection under the Crown Lands Act of 1884.
The first blocks applied for were between Punchbowl Creek and the Georges River. An interesting mix of people settled in the area. The first to take up their selection were the Etchells brothers, Harry and Frank in 1889. They distilled bootleg rum made in illegal stills in the bush. Other settlers included Leonce, Gustave and George Frere, and Charles and Edmond Kelso. The Freres selected large acreages at Eckersley where George Frere established a vineyard. Charlie Kelso decided his land was unsuitable and forfeited it in 1892. James Heffernan extracted shellac resin from the trunks of tree ferns and sold it to a gunpowder merchant. The Everetts ran the little post office from their selection at Eckersley, and also grew grape vines and apples. They were very well respected and were given a big send off when they left the district in 1902. The Trotts also lived at Eckersley - Whyndam Albert Trott and his wife Lavinia. Mr Trott was away working for weeks at a time, possibly due to his occupation as a builder. Jules Pierre Rochaix also had a house at Eckersley, but he exchanged his land for two blocks at Mount Colah. He was a detective with the New South Wales police force, just one of 14 detectives in a force of just under 2000 officers and constables.

The early Eckersley settlement

 
Further along the river other families built homes and established vineyards and orchards, including Nathaniel Bull, a former mayor of Liverpool, and Isaac Himmelhoch, who cleared and terraced his land with stone, and built a large winery and cellars.
In 1891 there were more than 30 small farms in the area, but by 1912 the Post Office closed. The remoteness of the area, and the fact that the soil proved to be not as suitable as first thought, were contributing factors to the demise of Eckersley. Its fate had been sealed when Lord Kitchener, visiting Australia on military matters, declared Holsworthy as the site for a permanent army camp. The Army took possession in 1913, and the rural settlement was abandoned. The settlers were paid no compensation.
Today only a few ruins, stone walls, wells, and foundations remain of Eckersley.

Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
Grist Mills Vol.8 No.4 "The Road to Frere's Crossing".
Grist Mills Vol.16 No.1 "Snippets of history of the Georges River".
www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/lost-suburb-eckersley.html
www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au "History of our suburbs"
Trove

Wedderburn Bridge

Wedderburn Bridge (photo: Dennis Townend)

A bridge over the Georges River at Wedderburn Gorge was first built in 1892. It replaced a nearby ford. The bridge was wooden and was built by Jim and George Kershler. The Kershlers had also built the bridge at Frere’s Crossing further downstream. The bridge had been built for horse drawn traffic only which therefore made it unsuitable for much of its long life.

In 1935 there was a deputation to the Council regarding the unsafe bridge carrying a seven ton limit weight capacity. This was of great importance to the Fruit Growers Association. The majority of landowners at Wedderburn grew fruit on their orchards. With the weight restriction it meant having to bring the fruit to the bridge and unload it onto bigger trucks for the remainder of the journey to the Sydney markets. The result was more expense and time and a need to repair the inadequate bridge. Council approved and ironbark timber was used in its repair.

Over the years there were many complaints made to council for repairs to the road and to the bridge. In 1978 council banned all vehicles, except cars, from using the bridge. Tests revealed the bridge supports were only 50 percent solid. A temporary bypass road was hurriedly constructed by council. So began the struggle of Wedderburn residents to have a new bridge built.

Wedderburn Bridge at the Georges River, taken from bypass road, 1985

In August 1986 the area experienced major flooding resulting in major damage to the old wooden bridge. Residents were left without access to Campbelltown. Of course this caused great concern, not just for commercial reasons as most of the landholders were still fruit growers, but for possible emergencies that might have arisen. A temporary Bailey Bridge was hastily placed across the old wooden one by the army. The bridge was removed later in the year and a temporary concrete causeway was constructed. The causeway however is regularly submerged leaving the Wedderburn community isolated for days.

A decision now had to be made about building a new bridge or using a culvert. The debate was still being argued 20 years later with articles in the local media focusing on the issue. As late as 2014 the issue of a new bridge at Wedderburn again drew media attention. The wait continues.

Written by Andrew Allen

Update: A new bridge was opened in 2019

Sources:

HOLMES, Marie

“Wedderburn”

In Grist Mills, Vol.10, No.2, April 1997

The Macarthur Advertiser, August 13, 1986 p1,6 and August 20, 1986 p1

The Macarthur Advertiser, June 14, 2006 p24

 

Memories of George Frere and the "Crossing"

On 12 June 1976 Keith Longhurst interviewed his 86 year old father James Longhurst at Frere's Crossing on the George's River. The interview took place at the spot where the bridge crossed the river and was known as Frere's Crossing. The interview reveals valuable information about the early days of the crossing and the surrounding countryside. It also sheds some light on the man responsible for building the crossing- Georges Frere.

Georges Pierre Frere came from the Cognac district in the Charente in France. He migrated with his parents as a nine-year old boy in 1875. He was the son of a winemaker Francois Gaston Leonce and Martha Frere. They had grown grapes that were used to grow cognac.

Protruding from the rocky floor of the Georges River near Kentlyn is a series of old stumps, which once supported the bridge that spanned the waterway. The bridge provided access to Frere's farm. In 1893-94 the Department of Public Works contracted out to build this bridge at Frere's Crossing. It was George Longhurst, James' father, who laid the stone approaches to the bridge. The bridge had eight piles with four piles in the middle. The bridge itself was probably built by George and Jim Kershler.

I thought I would include some of the extracts from the interview that Keith Longhurst did with his 86 year-old father James back in 1976:

This is 12 June 1976 and I am at Frere’s Crossing with my father and he is now standing where his father did stonework on the George’s River Bridge or the Frere’s Crossing as it is now called. That was 75 years ago, what can you tell us? How old would your father have been when he did this, any idea? 

I should say he was around 40. 

When he came here, you reckon you came here in 1895 and you were then 5 years old. 

That’s correct. 

This road at the end of Frere’s, it was here then. 

It was there, but it wasn’t as good a road as it is now. It had a good bridge. It was very rough; you would go out of one pothole into another. 

How long do you reckon that road has been there? Could you work it out? 

We don’t know who built the road, but we always believed it was convicts. You could see where they blasted it with gelignite.

They call this Frere’s Crossing. Frere must have come here before this bridge was here. Etchell came here before this bridge was here. Because we know that the bridge was built in about 1900 – 1901 and your father did the stonework here, so they probably would have done the whole lot together. 

I think that the bridge was built before that Keith when I think over it, because when we came down here, my mother and Mrs Taylor who lived opposite, Mrs Piggott’s mother, they used to come down here in the old cart. We used to have about 12 kerosene tins to take water home and they used to do their washing on the bank there. That went on for some time in the first year that we here because we had no water up there. I remember seeing wallabies up there lying on the rocks when they were washing here. 

Talking about wallabies, did you ever see Koalas here? 

Oh, dozens of them. I don’t mean in one time, but in the years that I lived in the old bush, which I suppose, was about 8 years, we used to see them often, one or two perhaps in a day. There were quite a number of them throughout the country.

                                               James Longhurst photographed in 1920


 

 

Further into the interview James Longhurst talks about Frere:

 

What sort of a house did Frere have? Have you any idea? 

He had an old slab place. He had two places; one was built of weatherboard if I remember right. The other one was the place where he cooked and had his meals. I remember once we wanted to get off a bit early and the fellows sent me up to turn the clock on. I went up and I didn’t know much about a clock. I got hold of the thing and I started twisting. Anyway I heard his cough, everyone knew his cough, and he was just behind. I put the thing down and scooted out the other door and the alarm went off.  
 

What sort of cough did Frere have? I’ve heard you speak of this cough. 

I was going to talk about his cough. He had a very peculiar cough. You’ve asked me and I’ll have to go a little way and relate. Once Bert was sent to get Darkie, the old horse used to take us about, as it was a pretty big place that he had from the vineyard to his home. Bert was sent to get the horse and he found the horse and we found Bert, five of us and we all piled on behind Bert on the horse. I was on the tail just hanging on as there wasn’t any more room and presently around the corner we heard the old fellow coughing and if you could have seen us slide off that horse. Only Bert remained. I went over his tail and the others went off the side. That cough was what I heard when I went to do the clock.  

The last time I heard that cough was the last time I saw Old Frere. I don’t talk out of disrespect when I say old; we always called him Old Frere. We were children and he was about 40 I suppose. I was working in Sydney when I was about 16 and a half and I was going from the railway up to Bow Street and I got up to Crown Street and I was walking along there and I saw an old man going along there. I didn’t take any notice of him and presently he coughed and I looked round and sure enough it was Old Frere. I was glad to see him and I don’t know why I didn’t talk to him. It was he and he was walking along there coughing and only Frere had that cough. That was the last time I saw him.

 

Do you remember how much wine he made or how he got rid of it? 
 

I don’t know how much he made or how he got rid of it. I know carts used to come from this direction past our place at midnight and two in the morning, that sort of thing. Why I don’t know.

Wilfred Longhurst, Alfred Longhurst and Andy Johnson sitting on bridge at Frere's Crossing, Kentlyn in the 1920s
 

 

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Interview with Keith and James Longhurst, 12 June 1976,  Held at Local Studies section, HJ Daley Library

Macarthur Advertiser, August 16, 1995 p21

HOLMES, Marie
"Snippets of History of the Georges River"
In Grist Mills
Vol.16, No. 1, p